Never Say He Isn't Grateful
by justreckin
Summary: or Why Peggy Carter Might Not Be Howard Stark's Girl But Letting Him Stay With Her A Week Was The Best Decision She Ever Made


These characters do not belong to me.

* * *

It was nice to be back in New York. Even if it wasn't his own place. Not, of course, that he wasn't grateful to Peggy for putting him up. Howard Stark may be many things, but never let it be said that being ungrateful was one of them. Even if he might forget to say so from time to time.

Not that spending a few nights in a complex full of girls was a bad thing.

He lounged against the wall a moment. Donna sure was a nice girl, pity she had to go to work.

Footsteps coming up the stairs sent him into a panic. He tugged at Peggy's door only to find it locked. And him without a key.

There was nowhere to hide in this damn empty hall. No windows to crawl through, no curtains to stand behind. Only the laundry slot made for suitable concealment, and that was at the top of the stairs, in plain sight of whoever was coming.

Well, there was nothing for it. He straightened his jacket, slicked back his hair, and resumed lounging against the wall in his most intriguing-rogue pose.

The girl who came up the stairs, however, wasn't paying attention. She was dressed in a maid's outfit, curly red hair pulled back from her face, and her nose in a book.

"Well hello there." She yelped at Howard's voice, dropping book and purse when she jumped.

She steadied herself against the wall; hand over her heart as she gasped for air. She shoved overlarge glasses up her nose, "Who the hell are you?"

Howard was much ashamed that he only gawked until she spoke to him. As soon as words left her mouth he remembered himself and darted forward to pick up her book and purse even as he apologized. 'I'm Howard. Peggy's cousin." He glanced down at the book as he handed it back to her. His eyebrows rose, he'd expected some kind of silly romance novel, not an old manual on submarines. "That's some hefty reading."

She nodded, taking it back, "It's my brother's. It's outdated, but better than nothing."

Howard nodded, "You like subs?"

"Not subs, just their radar systems."

"Yeah?" Howard maneuvered them down the hall. He was pretty sure hers was the door on the corner, since he hadn't met the occupant of that room and had been warned that the two on either side of Peggy's were off-limits. "You ever try to build one?"

She laughed, "Only all the time ever since I was a kid. I've got a prototype in the living room. Would you like to see? You shouldn't be out in the hall anyway, you'll get Peggy in trouble."

When Peggy called for him two hours later, Howard didn't hear it. He was too busy having an argument with Elizabeth, who did indeed have a prototype radar system in her living room.

"What are you doing?" her voice was a little shrill as she returned from her tool-stash in the closet to find him tinkering.

"Hey! I almost had it!" Howard had to jump away to avoid the wrench she swung between him and the machine.

"You're not doing it right!"

"Yes I am. I know what I'm doing!"

"That doesn't go there!" she gesticulated rather violently at the lever Howard had been attaching. "Just let me—"

They both froze at the knock on her door. Eyes wide, Elizabeth turned to Howard, "Hide." He scuttled toward the bathroom as Elizabeth went to the door. She checked the peephole before opening it and let out a breath of relief. "You can come out," she said to Howard as she opened the door, "It's your cousin."

At her announcement, Howard slid between her and the door, "Hello Peggy."

"Howard," her eyes flickered over the two occupants of the apartment with some confusion, but her tone never lost any of its exasperation, "Elizabeth."

"Hi Peggy."

"Pegs, c'mere, you gotta see this radar—Ow!" He glared at Elizabeth, who had smacked him upside the head. "What was that for?"

"What makes you thing I'm going to let you anywhere near my _only_ prototype after you almost broke it?"

"I did not almost—"

"Howard."

He was a little startled by Peggy's interruption; he'd forgotten she was there for a moment. "Right. See you later Elizabeth." He waved to the redhead, following Peggy out the door and down the hall. She held her door open for him, and he obliged her with a grin, but paused before entering her room, "Bet that wasn't what you were expecting when you knocked."

Two days later, Howard was pounding on Elizabeth's door. Peggy had kicked him out. He deserved it. More, actually. But this was why Peggy Carter was the only woman in his life Howard knew he could never have.

He almost fell in when Elizabeth opened the door. "Howard!" He made quick work of righting himself. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, look, that radar you're building, how deep can it reach? All the way to the ocean floor?"

"Easily."

"How about through ice?"

She bit her lip, "It would take a bit of adjustment, but I don't see why not."

"Great. Do that. We leave tomorrow. Pack warm." He ignored Elizabeth's protests when he hurried away.

He returned late the next morning, still smarting a little from his discussion with Jarvis. Elizabeth opened the door quickly at his knock. The apartment was clean, the prototype packed away, and no evidence of the countless tools that had been lying around the last time he'd been here. She let him in without a word.

"She kick you out?"

"Who?" He was actually a little surprised to see two travel bags on her bed.

"Peggy. I heard you two last night." She glared when Howard tried to give her a disapproving look. "These walls are paper thin. You're lucky the only other person in last night was Sally, and she's dumber than a doorknob."

He sighed. His whole body felt like it was collapsing in on itself. "She kicked me out."

"Why?"

"Thought you said you heard us."

"I said I _could_ hear you. I didn't say I was _listening._"

"I lied to her."

Elizabeth took in his slumped form, when she spoke again it was quite a bit gentler than Howard expected it would be. "You shouldn't have done that."

He shrugged. She was right, he shouldn't have. He'd known that then, and he knew it even more now. But knowing it didn't change a thing. "I need to make it up to her."

"By finding her soldier."

Howard's eyes went wide. "How—I didn't—"

Elizabeth waved him off. "Please. Give me some credit. You and I both know that the only way a gal like Peggy Carter comes home from the war alone is if the fellow who meant to come home with her isn't around anymore. Besides, why else would you need a radar?"

For a stunned moment, Howard could only stare at her. Then a slow smile bloomed across his face. "I think this is going to be the beginning of a beautiful partnership."

Of course, that partnership didn't start off particularly beautiful. They spent the next two days in a small boat, making their way out to the point where Howard had found the Cube. It was hard work; navigating through the Atlantic wasn't exactly his forte. _And_ there was quite a bit of equipment they needed to bring along for when they actually reached land; maintaining it was a chore and a half.

Once they reached the last point Howard had previously searched he insisted on going over it again. While there probably wasn't a single ripple in the ocean floor around here that he didn't know by heart, that didn't mean Howard was going to just pass it by. In the off chance that he'd missed something the last hundred times he'd gone over the area, he couldn't move straight on. It was slow going, and it took another three days after completing the first leg of their trip before they even reached the frozen landmass Howard had yet been unable to explore.

Elizabeth, Howard was quick to learn, didn't like the cold. And she wasn't particularly sweet about it either. They hardly spoke a word more than those necessary to maintain the equipment, and even those were clipped. In his more charitable moments, Howard would acknowledge that it was only fair, since the foul weather and lack of success was making him just as much of a bear.

Still, neither of them was a quitter. Which was how, nine days after leaving New York they finally hit pay dirt.

They spent the next 16 hours breaking through the ice and the hull of the Valkyrie. It wasn't until they were standing over the frozen form of Steve Rodgers that Elizabeth finally cracked.

"You didn't tell me we were looking for _Captain America._"

Howard only shrugged. It didn't really matter now.

24 hours after they found Steve, they managed to load him onto the even smaller truck they'd been driving around in since making land. 36 hours after they found him, they made the boat and hooked him up to the equipment Howard had brought along in hopeful fervor of finding his friend alive.

When it came down to it, Howard wasn't sure which part surprised him more: that they actually found Steve, or that the equipment worked to revive him.

Thirteen days after they'd originally left New York, they were back. Their party now one greater than it had been when Howard and Elizabeth first left. All were very excited to see Peggy's reaction.

Howard waited outside the Griffith with a disguised Steve while Elizabeth brought her things up to her apartment and collected Peggy.

When she emerged sometime later sans bags, but also without Peggy, the worry began to bubble in the pit of Howard's stomach. Elizabeth marched straight up to him and punched him square in the nose.

"Ow! What the hell?" Howard's hands shot up to catch the blood that gushed from his nose.

Steve caught Howard with one hand and offered support as the other man straightened himself out. "Where's Peggy?"

"She's been arrested for treason. I assume by the SSR."

Steve paled dramatically. Howard cursed.

Steve rounded on the billionaire, "What did you do?"

Howard's hands shot up in surrender. "I didn't _do _anything. I just asked her for some help clearing my name after my things went missing."

"Peggy was arrested because of you!" Steve lunged at the other man, who only just managed to stumble out of the way.

Elizabeth's shrill whistle froze Steve; something Howard was immensely grateful for. "Fighting isn't going to help. We need to go get her."

Howard wiped at his nose pointedly, "You're one to talk."

Elizabeth glared, but Steve ignored the comment. "Do you know where the SSR is?"

Howard put on his best indignant face. "Of course I know where the SSR is…"

"Then let's go."

"I've just never been inside." Steve's face turned red. Which Howard knew was a much more dangerous sign than when the man paled. He wasn't ready to sign his own death certificate just yet. "But I know someone who has."

Jarvis wasn't at all surprised when his employer appeared on his doorstep with a young woman and Captain America in tow. At least, he didn't seem very surprised, and Howard fancied himself something of an expert on reading his butler's facial expressions.

Which is why he knew exactly how poorly the man thought of him as Jarvis calmly led the way into the SSR headquarters.

Steve shed his disguise in the elevator, and as soon as they reached the row of telephone switchboards, he became untouchable. He stormed into the SSR bullpen, demanding, "Where's Peggy?" a gaggle of telephone line women trailing behind him.

A man, Jarvis introduced him as Chief Dooley, stepped forward to question their little group, but he never got further than Steve's name. Exactly what happened over the course of the next five minutes, Howard wasn't really sure. But the charges against him were dropped faster than you could say _treason_. And no one dared to bring up the charges Peggy was facing.

It wasn't until an agent, with one arm in a crutch, led Peggy into the room that Steve paused. He turned and stared at her, and for a long moment, that was all they did. In his peripheral, Howard was aware of the agent removing Peggy's cuffs, but his eyes, like everyone else's were glued to the spectacle of reunited lovers before them.

Then Steve closed the distance between them and Peggy collapsed into his arms. They never said a word.

Howard never would have been able to keep his mouth shut. He wouldn't have been content with just holding her either. But then, that was why Peggy Carter wasn't his girl.


End file.
